Historical Analogies: The Vietnam And Iraq War

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The Vietnam War and Iraq War were profoundly different, both in the manner in which they were executed and their outcomes, yet each war can attribute its escalation to a historical analogy among other factors. Historical analogies are utilized in making foreign policy decisions because of the psychological concept of heuristics. Simply put, a heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows people, and in this case political leaders, to solve problems and make quick and efficient judgments. Yuen Foong Khong offers that historical analogies are endearing for policy makers because they help in explaining new situations in terms that one can understand and are capable of predicating what is likely to occur (Khong).
In both the Vietnam and Iraq Wars,